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SGM Supply Lines for 1.9.*

This mod introduces a new gameplay mechanic: Military fleets now need supplies. If a fleet is out of supply it has reduced weapon power and speed and continuously looses hitpoints until it is resupplied. Supplies are delivered automatically by dedicated AI controlled support fleets that spawn every couple of months. Your job is to make sure that the supply fleets can reach their target without being blown up!

A military fleet carries supplies for roughly 6 month. If it operates for a longer period without returning to a friendly spaceport, it needs to be resupplied. Each of your military fleets has a homebase supporting it. By default the homebase is always the currently closest owned spaceport. Alternatively you can select a homebase manually using a planetary edict. Roughly every 4 month the homebase sends out a supply fleet that transports fresh supplies to the military fleet. If the supply convoy reaches the consumer fleet, fresh supplies for another 6 month are delivered and maintenance repairs are initiated. After a stay time of about 1 month, the supply convoy returns to the homebase.

1. What happens if a military fleet runs out of supply: Every month without supplies the fleet will roughly loose 5% of HP and suffer a cumulative reduction of weapon power and speed (combat, sublight and faster than light) by 6%. The weapon power and speed reduction is capped at 70%, but the HP is reduced until the fleet pays the ultimate price.
   
2. What happens when a supply fleet leaves the homebase: Depending on the size of the consumer fleet, the homebase determines the size of the required supply fleet. The supply fleet can also contain armed escort ships. Only your own spaceports can spawn supply fleets. However if your supply is running low, you can visit a friendly or neutral spaceport (minimum dock time 1 month) to restock supplies. Also while docked to a friendly or neutral port you dont need supplies and your crew and systems will recover from past supply shortage.
   
3. What happens when a supply fleet reaches the consumer: The consumer immediately restores 6% weapon power and speed (if necessary) and over the course of the next 2 month it will regain 15% HP. The consumer fleet is now again supplied for six month. For each month in good supply status the weapon power and speed penalty additionally reduces by 1%.
   
4. What happens when a supply fleet departs from the consumer: The consumer again restores 6% weapon power and speed (if necessary).
   
5. What happens if a supply fleet is destroyed: It's obvious... but I am saying it anyway *g*: The military fleet will not be resupplied and suffer the consequences. In addition, every supply ship that is destroyed delays the departure of the next supply fleet by roughly 5 days. Furthermore every destroyed supply ship incurs a mineral cost that is substracted from your income over the next months, until the debt has been paid.
   
6. Wear and Tear: Every military ship will take 1% damage per month if it is not docked to a spaceport.

1. Maximal number of supply fleets per consumer fleet: 3
   
2. The maximal number of consumer fleets is 10. If you have more than 10 military fleets active at the same time, only those who make up for more than 10% of your naval capacity will be subject to the supply mechanics.
   
3. Maximal number of empires in the game: 50
   
4. The operation of the supply fleets is handled by an automatically created vassal, named "Supply Corps". Do not gift planets or other wargoals to the Supply Corps. It wont make use of it, as the AI of this special vassal is customized for other tasks. At the moment it is unfortunately not possible to hide it completely from the player.

1. This mod is an addition to the SGM series which aims at exploring new military gameplay options for Stellaris. I recommend to use this mod with the other parts to get the intended overall mechanics/gameplay experience.
   SGM Fleet Logistics
   SGM Battle Survivors
   SGM Warscore
   
2. With this mod the days where the attacker can operate in each and every one of the defenders systems no matter how deep in enemy space are gone. If you overextend or do not think about your supply lines, your offensive might come to an end much sooner than expected. To make the most out of this mod I highly recommend to additionally use Defense Space Agency.
   
3. You'll find that the supply mechanics define a natural operating radius around your spaceports. If you travel farther away it will be difficult to keep up your fleet and loosing even one supply convoy can mean a serious problem.
   
4. Have you ever had an enemy fleet in orbit with more than tripple your stength? FE's/AFE's like to do that... well, now there is at least one strategic option that you have available to fight back! This brings me to the next point:

1. The supply line mechanics are by default active for AI empires (default, FE, AFE). However,
   
2. The AI does not understand the new game rules. AI modding is extremely limited in Stellaris and there is no way to teach it something new.
   
3. As a consequence I made it so that the AI will not suffer the same penalties as a human player for loosing supply fleets, but the same core mechanic apply: If the AI looses a supply fleet, the consumer fleet eventually runs out of supply and gets the debuff, which is however capped at 30%. Also the AI will not suffer the additional drawbacks of loosing supply fleets. To improve performance the supply fleet mechanics are only active for AI empires that are at war. I enjoy using the mod with the AI very much, because I use a game setup that lets me go up against incredibly strong opponents (at least hard+advanced start for all AI's). Now you can use clever maneuvering to wittle them down.
   
4. For competitive multiplayer games (or if you simply dont like the AI to use supply lines), you can deactivate all related AI mechanics using a country edict.

All numbers and detailed effects are subject to further balancing. Your input is very well come! Should you experience any problems, please let me know, I'll try to fix it ASAP.

1. This mod does not overwrite any core game files and should be compatible with most other mods.
   
2. The mod is not save game compatible. You need to start a new game.
   
3. The mods algorithm is quite complex (unfortunately mostly due to missing modding functionality). I tried my best to optimize the performance, but it remains to be seen if the mod is usable for very large galaxies. Performance reports are welcome.

Credits for the smaller fleet bars go to Ankain. I reused this feature from his Living Systems mod.